Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Neville for raising this matter on the Adjournment. I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin. While I am not sure my response will be of great assistance to the Deputy, I will place on record the views of the Minister on the issue.

One of the main objects of the school transport scheme is to provide a basic level of service for children who live long distances from schools and might otherwise experience difficulty in attending regularly. Approximately 140,000 primary and post-primary pupils use the school transport scheme on a regular basis. The allocation for school transport in 2005 is €116.533 million, an increase of 6% on last year's outturn. In the region of 30% of the allocation will be expended this year on transport costs and grant-aid for children with special needs who represent about 6% of the overall number of children carried each day.

For the purposes of post-primary education provision, the country is divided into catchment areas, each of which has its own post-primary centre. Under the terms of the post-primary school transport scheme, a pupil is eligible for school transport if he resides 4.8 kilometres or more from the post-primary centre in the catchment area in which he lives. A post-primary centre is not necessarily a school building. It is usually a central point in the catchment area to which the distance from home is measured.

Eligible pupils who wish to attend post-primary schools in another catchment area may be allowed transport on school services from within the catchment boundary of the centre being attended, subject to there being room available on the school transport service and no additional cost to the State. The pupils themselves are responsible for getting to the catchment boundary or to the nearest school bus service within that catchment area.

An eligible pupil who is approved for catchment boundary transport is not guaranteed school transport for the duration of his education at that centre. As a concessionary measure, continued transport will depend on the availability of space on the school service to that centre in each school term.

A large number of pupils who reside in the Limerick city catchment area have been provided with full transport facilities to the Salesian college, Pallaskenry, because of difficulties encountered in previous years in securing placements in certain schools in Limerick city. The continued provision of full school transport facilities for these pupils and new applicants for school transport is being reviewed in the light of the outcome to the new centralised application system for enrolments for pupils in Limerick city which was put in place for the next school year. Catchment boundary transport will continue to be available to pupils enrolling in the Salesian college, Pallaskenry, subject to the terms of the scheme.

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